12-member U.P. family rescued from alleged bonded labour in Hyderabad

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The women who were rescued from a construction site in Bachupally, Medchal Malkajgiri districts in Telangana on Tuesday (September 29, 2026). | Photo Credit: By Arrangement

When a family of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh wanted to return home, they were allegedly threatened, assaulted and prevented from leaving the premises together. Nearly a year after they arrived in Hyderabad for work, Revenue and Labour officials from Medchal-Malkajgiri district rescued all 12 members of the family from alleged bonded labour conditions at a construction facility in Bachupally on Tuesday (September 29, 2026). The supervisors were taken into custody and Miyapur Police have begun an investigation.

Among those rescued were six children aged between three and 10. During the inspection, officials found four women, aged 40, 25, 20 and 19, and the children living in tin-sheet rooms without ventilation. The family cooked and defecated inside the rooms, conditions that officials found hazardous and unsanitary.

The rescue followed a complaint by social workers to the Revenue Divisional Officer, Medchal-Malkajgiri district. The workers told officials that they had been living and working at the facility since September 2025 after being recruited from Uttar Pradesh through a trafficker with the promise of earning around ₹1,200 per day in Hyderabad.

What followed, according to the workers, was very different. Some families received an advance of around ₹5,000, while others said the advance money promised to them was never paid. After they began working, they were allegedly told that their wages would instead be calculated at around ₹12,000 a month, with the balance to be settled when they left.

They said they eventually received only around ₹1,000 per family every week, amounting to roughly ₹143 a day for an entire family.

Leaving the job, however, was allegedly not an option. The workers said they were not allowed to leave the premises together as a family, while most of their belongings were kept in a separate room locked by a supervisor.

They claimed that they were made to work throughout the week and faced physical and verbal abuse when they were unable to work, fell ill, disagreed with the employer or supervisors, demanded pending wages or sought to return home. Sick and injured workers were allegedly not provided adequate medical treatment. One worker told officials that he had been physically assaulted on multiple occasions.

The case is being examined under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, in view of allegations of withheld wages, restrictions on movement, physical violence, threats and the workers’ inability to freely leave their employment.

Following the rescue, the family was taken to the Mandal Revenue Officer’s office in Gachibowli for further proceedings under the Central Standard Operating Procedures for Bonded Labour.

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